William Blake and the Struggle for Transcendence

DePaul University Via Sapientiae College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences 7-2019 Revolutionary bodies: William Blake and the struggle for transcendence Anthony Madia DePaul University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://via.library.depaul.edu/etd Recommended Citation Madia, Anthony, "Revolutionary bodies: William Blake and the struggle for transcendence" (2019). College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations. 276. https://via.library.depaul.edu/etd/276 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences at Via Sapientiae. It has been accepted for inclusion in College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Via Sapientiae. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Revolutionary Bodies: William Blake and the Struggle for Transcendence A Thesis Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Masters of Arts June, 2019 By Anthony Madia Department of English College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences DePaul University Chicago, Illinois Madia 1 William Blake’s work should be considered as an artist’s attempt at constant revision; the work is never really complete, and different iterations will be crafted due to the available means of production. Different plates will yield different reactions, and new terrifying aspects will be rendered. Consider The Tyger; differing plates created over the course of Blake’s display of this particular work are evocative of different feelings. The titular tiger is sometimes viewed as non-threatening, and other times there is a palpable fear. And yet, the skeletal structure of the plate is arguably the same. One could argue that only cosmetic changes are used, but these changes have far reaching implications. In short, subtle alterations give way to differing responses to a particular plate. Delving further into Blake’s plates, it becomes obvious that the artist is fascinated by bodies, both animal—as evidenced above—and human. Blake’s bodily engagements show rippling masses of flesh with bulging limbs, bodies that are at the limit of any semblance of reality. The intentionality of this exaggeration is revealed when one considers Blake’s consistent relationship with these bodies over the time of their creation and mass production; the exaggerated forms cannot be altered through the reproduction of his plates. The muscles and the skin can be somewhat concealed in the differing versions, but the forms are still etched in place. Since Blake was undoubtedly familiar with platemaking, this suggests that the form of the bodies, which are unalterable, comprise the constant message he is attempting to portray. Therefore, these bulbous bodies take on a greater significance for both the artist and the observer. Once one reckons with the rigidity of the bodies’ forms, it becomes important to consider what the bodies are engaging in within the plate; the senses of motion, labor, and play reveal themselves through their emblematic bodies. While first realizations of this conjure Madia 2 Platonic sentiments regarding ideality, when one further examines the plates it is revealed that while Blake may be appealing to the notion of an ideal form, there is ample evidence to suggest that he is aware that this form does not exist; or rather, it may exist outside of the realm of physical depiction. Instead, through the use of a centralized, “first” plate containing an exaggerated body or bodies (depending on the work), Blake provides himself an opportunity to engage in a base form to depict a transcendence of bodily restrictions. This allows him to show exaggerated bodies gesturing towards an ideal form, bodies that are almost bursting from their physical confines. All this is to say, Blake has an intense passion and interest in the body. Moreover, due to the nature of his work there is an awareness that the images will be copied, edited and displayed in a mass-produced sense. Since the interest lies chiefly in bodies, one must consider Blake’s relationship with bodies outside of his work to provide context. Moreover, one should examine the ways in which the act of labor and production are both depicted and realized by Blake’s creation of the plates. In doing so, one is able to perceive that Blake’s work not only depicts bodies struggling to transcend themselves (perhaps towards an ideal), but that the plates also show a relationship between actual physical bodies/objects and the labor that impacts them. Moreover, throughout his plates Blake’s interests include sexual and racialized bodies. Finally, the plates make one consider how bodies are written and what constitutes a normative body in art. Through examinations of each of these concerns, one will arrive at the inevitable conclusion that regardless of the particular revolutions evidenced in Blake’s plates, the call for a revolution is paramount and it is a revolution that will be accomplished by and through the body. Madia 3 I. Physical Bodies Blake had an intimate knowledge of the human form and benefited from a general interest in anatomy during his lifetime. Regarding this interest, Stefani Engelstein writes of “the late eighteenth century medical focus on the reproduction of the human form” pioneered by William Hunter; Blake was one of Hunter’s “early students.”1 Furthermore, in his biography of Blake, G.E. Bentley expands on Blake’s experience with anatomy: “Hunter may occasionally have persuaded his brother John the surgeon…to demonstrate the layers and lay-out of muscles...When Blake later wrote that ‘a modern Man, stripped from his load of clothing…is like a dead corpse’, he was almost certainly speaking from experience.”2 Even before Hunter, images of skinless human bodies were circulated. Susan Standring, in a history of topographical anatomy, provides an example of such bodies when discussing Andreas Vesalius’ De humani corparis fabrica; Vesalius’ 1543 work shows three skinless human bodies, walking in the sun with their muscles on display.3 Regardless of whether or not Blake was able to view these images, De humani suggests a growing interest in musculature as anatomy developed as a discipline. Furthermore, Jean-Antoine Houdon’s Flayed Man merits consideration when regarding Blake’s knowledge of musculature and anatomy. This piece was created in 1767 and is one of Houdon’s “most famous works, and has been reproduced thousands of times, serving as a popular anatomical model for artists...copies were soon found in art academies all over Europe.”4 1 Stefani Engelstein, “The Regenerative Geography of the Text in William Blake,” Modern Language Studies 30, no. 2 (2000): 61-2. 2 G.E. Bentley Jr., The Stranger From Paradise: A Biography of William Blake (New Haven: Published for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art by Yale University Press, 2001), 50. 3 Susan Strandring, "A Brief History of Topographical Anatomy," Journal of Anatomy 229, no. 1 (2016): 41-2, https://doi:10.1111/joa.12473. 4 Deborah Aaronson, Diane Fortenberry, and Rebecca Morrill, eds., Body Art (London: Phaidon Press Limited, 2015), 292. Madia 4 Considering the prevalence of this work throughout the entirety of Europe, one can assume that Blake would have encountered Houdon’s work during his time at the Royal Academy or elsewhere. Despite this exposure to and interest in the real, physical human body, Engelstein proceeds to write of Blake’s advocating for the “birth of a radically different human body,” one not bound up by earthly confines.5 In short, Blake was both familiar with and seemingly detested the limitations of the body; he was also familiar with musculature, the exaggeration of which will be shown below to articulate his revolutionary mission. The aforementioned detest and familiarity is further evidenced when one observes the Blake’s construction of a body. Consider the following description of Elohim Creating Adam by Tristanne Connolly: “The Elohim’s body has no middle: his shoulders are almost directly connected to his hips, with nothing in between but the locks of his long beard and the impractical tendons which attach the shoulders to the wings.”6Additionally, Connolly notes that even though there are flaws how Adam’s body is shown, “The muscles and bones are indicated with loving delicacy...suggesting a passion for the human form, while its creation is depicted as a cosmic tragedy.”7 Here, Connolly simultaneously highlights Blake’s appreciation and knowledge of the human form, his deliberate dismantling of that form, and the relationship that the transformed body has with the universe. This “loving delicacy” is also shown in the figure of Adam in God Judging Adam; in the image, Adam is depicted almost as one long muscle, half of his body hidden from view. It’s interesting to note that the figure’s body appears to contain more texture than Blake’s version of God in the same 5 Strandring, “Topographical Anatomy,” 62. 6 Tristanne J. Connolly, William Blake and the Body (Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillian, 2002), 25. Here, Connolly is paraphrasing the critic Christopher Heppner’s description of Blake’s work as found in Heppner’s Reading Blake’s Designs. 7 Ibid. Madia 5 image; this supports the notion that the struggle Blake is concerned with depicting is human. However, Blake will often reflect this struggle through his depiction of otherworldly beings. This shows that Bake’s aim is not to simply depict bodies, but focus the revolutionary act the bodies are engaged in. Referring back to The Tyger and its various forms, William Davis posits that with this work “Blake moves entirely into the visionary world…he takes his readers with him to question the source of good and evil, and of their possible reconciliation.

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